Sam Rubin is DEAD TO ME!

No, he was nationally recognized.

Only 64? No cause of death? Shocked colleagues?

I'm getting a bad feeling about Suicidey.

Heart attack is the cause.

Very stunned by this. Entertainment news has always equaled Sam Rubin to me.

My mother got mad when I told her at least it didn’t end like Chris Burrous for him.

Shoot, I was hoping to finally scoop DL but to no avail. It's always the fastest!

RIP Sam, he has been a fixture of LA Entertainment News for decades. Funny and nice guy. Sad, he leaves behind a big family.

R4 Please don't tell me he was hetero. No way.

Not just national stuff, OP. He was also known to tv audiences in the UK & Australia, appearing on entertainment segments of their "Today"-type morning shows. Legend. RIP.

With Jane Seymour, yesterday morning...😢

This is a shocker - his be poor family! My dad died of a heart attack watching a football game at home on a Saturday morning. He was 66 - for some reason he seemed so much older - then I read this. Funny how the perception of age has changed over the last 20 or 3o years. Luckily Rubin was happily and successfully employed and had a nice family. He is well respected and will be missed.

And Keanu Reeves still walks among us.

Watching Frank Buckley choking-up during the announcement broke me.

R3 Has Mister Fister commented? .. There are those who contend he's a Friend to KTLA.

This is from a few years ago, in celebration of Sam's 30th Anniversary with KTLA

^^ correction: for the 30th Anniversary of KTLA's morning show (not his anniversary)

“ I too am so deeply saddened & stopped in my tracks to hear of the passing of this quite frankly lovely,lovely man. Every time we spoke over the years…even every time we just saw each other across a room or online…such a true gentleman. So very gentle,always so immaculate,immaculately informed and endlessly passionate about his work too. Good Lord. Truly shocked to see this here. Goodnight Lovely man.”

Natural causes.

Richard Simmons has weighed in

Richard is still alive?

RIP, Sam Champion.

Sam's infamous interview with Samuel L. Jackson.

I wonder if Perez Hilton has responded. Damn, this was savage.

I will never forget his amiable, charming television presence whenever I saw him on Reelz Channel way back in the day. Although I never knew him personally, I used to enjoy his opinions and views on everything relating to the entertainment industry whether on Reelz or the TV Guide network. I think seeing people like him on TV was one of the reasons why I wanted to pursue a career in the entertainment industry (and still do).

RIP Sam Rubin!

LA DL'ers, was he all that and a bag of chips?

Sounds like a lot of A listers really loved him.

Yes, he was, R22.

I am from New England and I remember him from childhood- He must have been a correspondent on some syndicated show- maybe E??

Always seemed like the kindest guy. And that is a term I do not use lightly. Like one of the good ones.

Nice to know I was right. His colleague's announcement was incredibly moving.

(I thought The Rock was of the good guys too, so I am rarely right)

I do international stuff

So many entertainment reporters come across to me as shallow sycophantic wanna bees. He was the opposite. He seemed sincere and genuinely interested in the entertainers and their work.

For the most part, he was very positive and seemed to genuinely love the industry. However, he could be an excellent reporter as well and covered the top Hollywood stories very well.

Love this post from Leah Remini. I think she summed up his appeal -- both to celebrities & "regular" Angelenos -- perfectly.

And the fact that he was like: "FU, Scientology. I'll have Leah Remini on whenever I feel like it"....just makes me love him (and miss him) even more.

When asked to comment about Rubin, Hilton smugly broke into "I'm Still Here...."

Genuinely sorry to hear this. Surprised he had a family, just assumed he was gay. On the air live yesterday and gone 24 hours later. Life is so unpredictable.

R29: And no one will shed a tear when he dies, other than his immediate family. Maybe.

R16 RS is sad to hear his friend going to Heaven?

Did he want him to go to Hell instead?

He needs a press agent to make sure his texts are better written.

If there was any doubt how much L.A. loved Sam Rubin.....

Longtime Sam watcher in L.A. here, and when I told my boyfriend, the first thing he asked me was, "is that the guy who was trying to lose weight?" I'd forgotten this segment Sam did from a couple years ago.

Yeah, R34, I thought about that, too. Not necessarily that specific clip/segment....but that he'd made a conscious effort to lose weight & be healthier in the past few years (and it was talked about on the morning show). It wasn't an extreme, or rapid, weight loss (i.e. Oh-Oh-Oh-Ozempic) but he had slimmed down a bit. Makes we wonder now if he knew there was a problem with his ticker.

[quote]Surprised he had a family, just assumed he was gay.

Gay people can't have families?

Was he on TRT?

Wow... quite shocking and scary...

Wife and kids aside, the man pinged like a pinball machine.

It was the Vax!

I was more shocked to find out he was hetero with a wife and kids than I was to find out he died.

[quote]Watching Frank Buckley choking-up during the announcement broke me.

Gently, I say...Mary.

R42, Frank is one of the real pros of LA News but he had just heard the news and had to go on the air to talk about it. He looked horrible. I think it was a testament to how beloved Sam was to have his host, a super professional, being hardly able to continue.

re Frank Buckley

That would be a hard job, having to announce your friend's death on live TV.

R44, I am always amazed at family members who are able to deliver eulogies wihile maintaining their composure.

I’ve been asked several times to do so at family funerals and had to beg off, knowing I would never get through it.

Some people survive widowmaker heart attacks, my mother did because someone was with her at the time, she was at work.

He'd talk about his kids frequently, even have them appear on camera. His son, Colby Rubin, is cute.

Alav ha ha-shalom, Sam.

Although I haven’t watched much in more recent years I really loved Sam Rubin. I also have a real soft spot for Michaela Periera.

When my mom was alive she watched all the time.

It should have been George Pennacchio - closet case corporate shill for Disney on KABC.

R49 What are you talking about? George and his wife, Erin, have been happily married almost 35 years now. He's a real stud and an Italian stallion in the sack!

If any of the many news people at KTLA were ever knocking at death's door it was Mark Kriski, who does weather. Over the decades I've seen him looking so bad at times that it appeared he had been propped up from the inside of a casket. He had one streak where he must have been under 100 lbs, and this guy is tall. BTW, Sam was not gay and I have never thought he pinged.

Yesterday KTLA devoted the entire broadcast to Sam. That is how loved and respected the man was.

I condole him.

Mark Kriski has had some truly unfortunate face work. His eyes are like a Cubist painting.

[quote] calling him a "talentless dope".

He wasn’t wrong though.

I'm shocked that Sam Rubin was married to a woman and had kids.

Mark's facelift was one of the worst I've seen but his heavily re-done wife is a strong contender as well.

R56, Is her wig from Charo’s collection?

R34 There definitely was a time when Sam needed to drop some weight. I remember thinking back then that his chineck was starting to make him look like Stephen Fry,

By all accounts, a well-liked and respected professional.

But this isn't the biggest shock. The man looked like a walking clogged artery.

Was he a great big fat person?

R60, not at all. But all kinds of conspiracy theories are coming out, including nuts saying it was from the vaccine.

I worked at KTLA for a few years 2019-22.

Ver nice guy. Does not ping at all to me. He was fairly self unaware and pooped and farted like a straight guy.

He was not obese but not in shape. Always looked like he was sweating and about to have a stroke if I’m being honest.

Your gaydar needs adjusting, R62.

[quote] Always looked like he was sweating and about to have a stroke if I’m being honest.

A high cholesterol level will kill ya...

But I agree with you, R62. Sam Rubin never pinged to me. Not even a smidgeon of a ping.

Maybe it's yours that needs adjusting, R63. You clearly have never seen the man dance.

Longtime viewer of KTLA here ... and Sam never pinged for me either. .. His generally effusive, ebullient demeanor just seemed like his way of engendering excitement about the entertainers and the industry he was covering.

This is kinda fun. From Student News when he was in high school. Although he hilariously butchers the pronunciation of Scorsese in a way that I have never heard before, I think this was pretty impressive for a 17 year-old (as were his sideburns). You can see that he had "it" -- whatever "it" is. I also had a good laugh about him griping that movie tickets had gone up to $4.00.

That's really sad. He seemed much older than his age.

[quote]He was fairly self unaware and pooped and farted like a straight guy.

???

[quote] I also had a good laugh about him griping that movie tickets had gone up to $4.00.

Using an inflation calculator, $4.00 in 1977 would equate to $31.55 today!

Wink Martindale posted a vintage video of Sam on Pyramid when Sam was 23. He already was pudgy and looked ten years older than his age.

If he’s who I’m missing I’ll pass on the adjustment r63

Our very own John Fenoglio's report on Sam featured on today's KTLA.

I cried when I heard the news. Sam was definitely not gay, not even on the lowdown. He was married twice with kids from both marriages. He was a quintessential part of Los Angeles for decades. He was a decent guy who loved his job. I’m 65, so his death hit me hard. Tell the people who need to hear it that you love them. You never know if it’ll be your last chance. Rest easy, Sam. You were loved by the people of this city because you were a mensch.

Colby Rubin appeared on the morning show Monday to eulogize his father. Not a dry in the house. (KTLA or mine). I could not have done this at 16. Hell, I couldn't do it at 46, when my father died.

Adjusted for inflation, $4 in 1977 is $20 today, not $31.

R75, Way over the top. He appears fey and is into theatre.

Just sayin’ . . .

Well, of course, you would R77.....as the troll who keeps insisting that Sam Rubin pinged/was gay. You're a fucking moron.

[quote]Colby Rubin appeared on the morning show Monday to eulogize his father. Not a dry in the house.

I was very wet!

Sam was always pudgy & yo-yo'd a bit. He had a good sense of humor about it. I remember seeing this, live, and laughing my ass off. How it started: Henry DiCarlo said his wife asked him, "Why are you always made to be the idiot?" (or words to that effect) And then, this happened, with longtime traffic-reporter Ginger Chan, on an open-mic.

R75 Aww, he's a cutie.

R78, The man pinged, Stevie Wonder. Get over it.

Oh, I see you've liked your own post already, R82.

Sam got a posthumous Emmy.

They never did that for MY husband!

[quote]Sam got a posthumous Emmy.

Way to go, Sammy, well-deserved! (KTLA's coverage of the strike was the best)

KTLA still has him listed on their website ("Meet the Team"). I wonder if the plan is leave his profile there permanently as a tribute, or they just haven't been able to bring themselves to remove it yet?